The New Mini Smashbox Full Exposure Palette Review

In Mecca the other day I saw they had two sets of mini Smashbox Full Exposure Palette. Each of them had different shades in the palette, one was more cool tones and the other was more warm tones. I do have to say that I don't like the packaging, it's great having something so small and slim to take travelling but to me, it has this cheap, plastic feel to it. I just feel like the palette looks and feels like it was made in some cheap-o factory.

The mini palette has 4 shimmer shades and 4 matte shades. I thought this would be a great idea to try out the Smashbox palettes. 

The shades already had fallout everywhere when I opened it for the first time, and you can see on the mirror that two shades have already left an imprint on the mirror. The palette didn't come with a plastic protector over the shadows which kind of annoyed me because I like my brand new palettes to be pristine. 

The shadows were crooked when I opened it which also makes me think that the palette is quite cheap looking. I would think a palette that cost me $35 from a well-know high end brand. The photo above is quite literally how it looked when I first opened the palette. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I've used a couple of things from Smashbox before and haven't had a problem but this was extremely disappointing.

The swatches disappointed me as well. Both the shimmer and the matte shades felt like they were made of chalk. They aren't very well pigmented at all. It took quite a bit of back and forth to get some colour onto my arm.

When wiping the shades away, the shimmer shades pretty much just got moved around on my arm, the colour went away but the glitter went everywhere.

If you were thinking about picking this palette up, I'd give it a miss. :(

Mecca Beauty Loop Box 20/1

On the 20th of Jan the Mecca Beauty Loop boxes got released. I was hella excited for these as the last one was absolute perfection. If you don't know what Beauty Loop is, it's basically Mecca's reward programm, I do believe that it was introduced middle last year. The more you buy from Mecca the higher up you go, each level has different benefits but all the levels get something free on their birthday (SPOILERS: I do believe it is a Mecca hand cream) and each level gets a beauty loop box. Basically level one is the basic one, second is a bit better and the third is the best "supposedly."

I'm on level 2 and my god I could not have been more disappointed.

My very first one was a level 1 and it had a mini By Terry mascara, a Kate Somerville moisturiser, a Josie Maran moisturiser and a Ren facial sample. The second box I got was a level 2 and it had a Ren facial sample, a mini Too Faced bronzer, samples of the Too Faced Born This Way foundation in different shades and a mini Nars Larger Than Life Long-Wear eyeliner in Via Veneto. I was absolutely in love with this box. The boxes are a bit of a hit and miss though, level 3 was jealous of the level 2 box because our box was better than theirs.

However this time around the level 1 box was better than the level 2's and level 3 was freaking amazing. It's really confusing.

In my box this year I got a mini Smashbox bb cream in light, a mini Byredo perfume, a Kate Somerville mask sample and a Bumble and Bumble shampoo and conditioner sample. It really pissed me off that we got almost the same sample (the Kate Somerville one) as the one I did in my first level 1 box. I'm grateful for the free stuff, (though can you really call it free stuff when you have to spend a certain amount of money at their store to get this?) but this box wasn't that great. I find sachet samples to be the most annoying things on the planet. Someone did say that these were expensive brands but this just seemed, too random. The perfume is nice I guess but you have to have a particular scent in mind. The bb cream is probably the best thing in the box, but it's a bb cream, which means it has different shades. I don't know if every box had the shade light in it but I felt that was very unfair to all the other skin tones. At least with the Too Faced born this way foundation samples they had different shades. This just didn't seem very inclusive and might have been the only redeeming thing in the box.

I will say that I love the beauty loop boxes, my second one literally left my jaw on the floor, but this one could have done better. I do like that they changed the box though, it used to be a pullout type mechanism but now it's a lid type box. I hope the next one is better!

New 2016 Makeup Trend Already?

So I've heard a lot about this trend already and it scares me.

The new trend is called "Glossy Eyes" and I just can't get on board with it. Places like BeautyHeaven and Makeup Forever have already posted articles and instagram photos about it but in my opinion it looks like a bad case of pink eye. The Glossy Eye can be achieved with some vaseline (and or lipbalm) and some eyeshadow.

Now I loved a lot of the trends from 2015 like the terracotta nudes and the liquid to matte lipstick trend but I don't see myself loving this trend at all. I barely like glossy lips as it is.

So my question is what do you guys think of this trend? Have we gone too far in the makeup industry? Let me know in the comments down below because I'd certainly love to hear your opinions on the matter.

The So Called ‘Deluxe’ Sample Size

So benefit had a little event at the Queen Victoria Building and at World Square in Sydney on the 21st of August. On instagram they had said you can pick up a free ‘deluxe’ sample of the porefessional and receive a voucher for a free make-upper(?). This supposed ‘deluxe’ sample however is 0.1 oz, although the general sample size they have in Christmas kits and things alike are 0.25 oz. That size is considered the norm size of the product’s sample size.

Normal sample size on the left, 'Deluxe' size on the right.

Now I’m not complaining, I mean it’s free makeup, its actually my most used primer so I’m pretty ecstatic when I don’t have to pay for it. I’m just wondering if it’s false advertising to say deluxe samples when it’s in fact smaller?

Let me know down in the comments if you agree or if you think I’m just nit-picking, which I probably am.

Laters,
Amber

My Hunt for Burgundy Eyeshadows

All I wanted was a eyeshadow to match my Nars Scarlet Empress lipstick but do you think I could find one? No of course not because in the beauty world you need to pay an arm and a leg for something so small. Then you may even have to sell your organs on the black market for postage.

So no, paying $12 USD for a ABH eyeshadow that when converted would probably cost me $24 AUD, not to mention paying for a forwarding service because ABH stopped shipping internationally.

I was also not going to waste my time sitting down and going through 140 MAC eyeshadows because believe it or not, I do have a life. Plus they don’t really have all of the eyeshadows in the Australian stores and if you want just the pan, not the compact, you’d have to go to a Pro store, of which I am not near. So ABH and MAC were out of the question.

But what’s this I see on my instagram feed from BeautyHaul411 - a coupon code for free international shipping for Makeup Geek. Oh thank you Lord Jesus Christ. I had been obsessed with the colour ‘Bitten’ ever since I saw it on their site but postage was always my buzzkill. HOWEVER that coupon saved my life. If you’re wondering what it is it’s FREESHIP2015ABZ although it does end today so better get in quick if you want it.

I will post pictures once I receive them, I should let you know I bought six (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Poolside, Bitten, Pop Culture and Peach Smoothie). So my days of keeping Bitten only in the cart and spending hours on Pinterest trying to find my perfect Burgundy are over :)

*Gollum Voice* My Precious!

What is it with limited editions? I can’t get over them. Its almost like this urge to own as many limited edition items as possible, even ones that currently don’t really exist anymore sadly like the Too Faced Leopard Love palette, although that doesn’t stop my inevitable need to track it down like a bitch in heat. So my question to you is, what’s your perspective on LE’s? I know a friend of mine doesn’t like LE stuff purely because they mark up prices and it's just another consumerist scheme to dish more money out of our pockets but, to me, that’s the appeal. Its the fact that I could own a thing which is unique. We all know the typical MAC black lipstick bullet, but once it changes colour, shape or texture we all go nuts. Same with any other MAC LE and I think it’s for a good reason, we’re all consumerists stuck in our little mindsets of “I need to own this item before it is gone forever!”

I know some of you will disagree, simply because of the fact that you actually want and like the product, whether it happens to be limited edition or not. I mean I did not hunt down a cheap but authentic Nars Virtual Domination palette for a year and a half because I liked the packing, no I actually wanted the palette because it was versatile and beautiful as I’m sure many of you would agree.

A few of my favourite LE’s ever, you’ll notice quite a few MAC products but really nobody does LE’s like MAC do:

• The Nars Virtual Domination Palette: it’s handy to travel with, the colours and pigmentation alone are worth the money and it has every cheek product you could need.
• MAC Simpson’s blush in Sideshow You: Let’s be honest, who didn’t watch the Simpsons as a kid common, this one was a given. While the blush alone is a great product, the packaging nailed it for me. I was disappointed that they had brought out lipglasses instead of lipsticks for the collection but oh well, you win some you lose some
• MAC Cinderella Iridescent Pressed Powder in Coupe d’Chic: Boy this one was a tough call because the collection actually included lipsticks! However they were super sheen which barely shows up on my lips and I hate that. So I chose the thing I use the most out of the collection although I did buy a few things from this collection, I chose this powder because it was freaking beautiful, it really does give your skin a pearly glow to it.
• The RiRi Hearts Mac Brush in 187SE: I freaking love this brush with all my heart (haha get it?) but I don’t dare touch it because the packaging is too beautiful! It’s hard for me to use products that change the way it looks and the same goes for brushes.
• Dose of Colours Black Rose: Oh lord, for those of you who don’t know me well yet, I love matte liquid lipsticks. I have draws dedicated to just liquid lipsticks, not even just normal lipsticks, but specifically liquid to matte ones. So I think it’s pretty awesome when one of them makes it onto yet another one of my favourites list, but this special one deserves this because my mummy dearest got it for my birthday, it does happen to be a beautiful dark burgundy colour that is so rich and dark that it almost sounds like a cake. But sadly, it was only for a limited time.
• ColourPop Tie Dye Eyeshadow in Rip Tide: This was part of the Tie Dye collection that came out for 1 weekend. The collection consisted of 4 pieces but this one by far was my favourite. Am I the only one who thinks that Rip Tide and Flamingo should have swapped their names around?

Caving In

Have you ever been pressured into buying something because you were too shy to say no and had already gone too deep to back out of buying the thing? Well rest assured you are not alone.

I can’t believe I’m actually going to write this but the other day I was on a FB makeup swap and sell page. It’s all very fine on there I haven’t had any bad experiences bar one and that was covered by Paypal. Low and behold I come across Mac’s Giggly Blush, for those who don’t know the beauty I am talking about I will post a photo below.

However since I had just done a bunch of online orders, my card was now in debt by $25. So I simply took a screenshot, hoping that by the time pay day had come around, it would still be available. To say that I was interested but not yet committed to buying it, I commented ‘F for the Mac Blush’ on the post. F meaning ‘following’ for those who don’t use swap and sell pages. Almost instantly I got three notifications, one saying the buyer liked my comment, one saying she had also commented, and a personal message, which read - “Hi Amber, if you were interested I can do the mac blush for $35 posted :) a little bit cheaper.” Albit it was cheaper by about $3 but she was so sweet about it that I didn’t want to say no. I feel like this has happened to at least everyone like when a shop assistant has helped you for about 30 minutes straight but the item you originally wanted wasn’t what you thought it would be but it’s too late to back out now.

So ashamed of myself, I didn’t look at the message until today and responded back saying that I would get it. Goddammit. I’ll let you guys know when I get it and do a review etc etc.

Here's a photo of it that I posted on Instagram (@16ambermarie) - It's the one in the middle.

It's so beautiful.

I’m so annoyed at myself.

Laters,

Amber.

To Start Or To Not Start A Makeup Blog?

That’s the big question isn’t it. I’ve already started a Youtube channel but Australia’s internet is so stupid that it takes forever for anything to upload. WE LITERALLY CREATED WIFI. HOW IS OUR INTERNET SO SLOW?!

Anyway, back to the blog eh?

I will be posting on here when a new video is up and I’ll be posting on Instagram when I’ll be posting on here.

Also please excuse the boring look at the moment, I'm still editing the blog's fonts, backgrounds and sidebar etc.

I will mostly be doing reviews, swatches, hauls, MOTD’s and an overview of my monthly bae’s and hell no’s seeing as I do videos on those anyway. If you want to check out my youtube, that's down the side under 'social media'. Please, please don’t be afraid to show me some love by leaving a comment or just spreading the word.

*Edit, all posts are going up at 12:30 (GMT + 10:00) Eastern Time.